I wouldn’t have accepted Black Stars captaincy if I were Andre Ayew – Asamoah Gyan
Black Stars striker, Asamoah Gyan has said that he wouldn’t have agreed to be captain of the Black Stars ahead of the African Cup of Nations if he had been in Andre Ayew’s position.
Gyan was stripped of the captaincy before the recently-ended AFCON with Swansea’s Andre Ayew being handed the armband.
The situation upset Gyan who announced his retirement from international football, citing the apparently limited role he was to play with the squad at the AFCON.
Gyan eventually returned to the squad after a meeting with the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, taking up a “general captain” role for the tournament.
The Black Stars were knocked out at the Round of 16 stage by Tunisia on penalties after winning just one of their four games at the tournament.
Gyan believes that although the issues over the captaincy did not affect the team’s performance at the AFCON, he felt Ayew should have rejected the captaincy given the controversy.
“I wouldn’t have accepted it. There was a lot of controversy and pressure. Andre and I had a conversation, he had to explain his part,” he told Accra-based station, Joy FM.
“He’s a good guy. He had no choice but to accept it. I don’t blame him but if I were him, I wouldn’t have.”
A number of people have spoken of double standards as Gyan was first made Black Stars captain after John Mensah was relegated to general captain.
However, Gyan rebuffed this, stating that unlike him, Mensah was not in the squad, adding that he would have rejected the offer had Mensah been selected.
‘We are teammates, not friends’
He maintains that while the two players don’t often hang out outside of camp, he and Andre are not rivals.
He added that sometimes they laugh at reports of tension between them.
“We laugh about these stories in camp. We’ve never fought. Andre is my teammate but it doesn’t mean we are friends. When we are in camp, we might hang out together. Outside the camp, we have our own friends and family. But there’s no rivalry, the love is still there.”
Despite being the nation’s all-time leading scorer, the player was used sparingly, featuring just twice from the bench.